PERSPECTIVES FROM THREE YEARS EXPERIENCE OF REGIONAL WATER SERVICES IN THAMES WATER AUTHORITY1

ABSTRACT: Thames Water is one of ten regional Water Authorities established in 1974 to manage all water services in England and Wales. This paper looks back at water reorganization and reviews the achievements and highlights of the last three years. Constitutionally, Water authorities are a combination of a nationalized industry and local authority. This has advantages and disadvantages. Freedom of action, particularly in financial matters, is constrained by Government and official agencies. A severe pollution of the upper Thames and the drought of 1976 tested Thames Water's ability to deal with emergencies. Thames Water does not have an operational monopoly. Private Water Companies supply one third of the water demand and local authorities manage nearly all the sewers. But Thames Water's control over planning and investment ensures that the river basin is managed in a coordinated fashion. Tariff structure changes have led the Authority to bill all its consumers direct. The Thames is a small but intensively used river and vigilance is needed to maintain water quality. Thames Water is proud of the restoration of the tidal Thames from a typical grossly polluted metropolitan estuary to its present excellent condition. The British Government intends to establish a national water industry strategic planning organization but at the same time they affirm that there can be no departure from the principle of integrated river basin management.     

The small-scale water provider in Paraguay: bringing private sector efficiency to water resource use and the provision of drinking water to the poor

This article provides a case study of small-scale private sector provision of water supply in Paraguay, where the Government has sought sector policy reforms that would encourage private investment in drinking water supply. Ironically, while the Government has focused almost entirely on garnering the interest of large private international water companies, much smaller local firms have already made significant investments in drinking water services for the poor, all without any participation or encouragement from the Government. Outside Paraguay's two major cities, Asunción and Ciudad del Este, large numbers of aguateros currently provide piped potable water to lower-income people. Though the aguateros have little legal footing — they are in many respects informal and unregulated —they have constructed as much as one third of all the new drinking water connections in these two cities over the past 20 years. The small-scale water systems in Paraguay offer a model of financial, economic, and water-use efficiency. This article asserts that an abundance of groundwater resources, cheap access to electricity for pumping, and a spirit of informal investment, among other variables, has spawned widespread use of this approach. This article documents and analyzes the features of these independent small-scale water providers in Paraguay and the efficiency they bring to the use of water resources in meeting drinking water demands among the poor. It also cautions against policies that may trample on such entrepreneurial spirit in the name of State-managed privatization.     

THE STRUCTURE AND ROLE OF RIVER AUTHORITIES IN TEXAS1

ABSTRACT: Texas river authorities are a type of large, regional water district that must be financially self-sufficient. An institutional and historical study of Texas river authorities reveals the broad power of these organizations and their influence in water management. River authorities now control 25 percent of surface water deliveries in Texas. Over two-thirds of authority water was developed by river authorities; nearly one-third was purchased from private or public ventures. While river authority activities have been effective where these services are marketable, the provision of public good services is limited. Increased visibility of these organizations is paralleled by challenges to their traditional autonomy.     

Past and future sustainability of water policies in Europe

The article contributes to a discussion on two global issues on water: water resources management, and water supply and sanitation. Focusing on Europe, it traces the legal roots of current systems in history: as a resource, water is considered as a common property, rather than a market good; while as a public service it is usually a commodity. Public water supply and sanitation technologies and engineering have developed under three main paradigms: quantitative and civil engineering; qualitative and chemical/sanitary engineering (both on the supply side); and the most recent one, environmental engineering and integrated management (on the demand side). The cost of public drinking water is due to rise sharply in view of the two‐fold financial challenge of replacing an ageing infrastructure and keeping up with ever‐rising environmental and sanitary quality standards. Who will pay? Government subsidies, or water users? The author suggests that apparent successes with privatisation may have relied heavily on hidden government subsidies and/or the healthy state of previously installed water infrastructure: past government subsidies are still felt for as long as the lifetime of the infrastructure. The article stresses the importance of public participation and decentralized local management of water and sanitation services. Informing and involving users in water management decisions is seen as an integral part of the ‘ethics’ side of the crucial three E's (economics, environment, ethics). The article strongly argues for municipal provision of water services, and hopes that lessons learnt and solutions found in the European experience may serve water services management efforts in other regions of the world.     

Qualifying irrigation system sustainability by means of stakeholder perceptions and concerns: lessons from the Segarra‐Garrigues Canal,Spain

When planning interventions, water and land resource managers increasingly need to take the opinions of stakeholders into account. In the present study, stakeholders’ concerns in a multifunctional water system are assessed, with a focus on the debate about the sustainability of irrigation projects in stressed and competing water contexts. The selected case study pertains to the Segarra‐Garrigues irrigation canal (Spain), the promotion of which has generated social debate and mobilization, as well as pronouncements from European authorities for ensuring its environmental sustainability. Data was collected through semi‐structured interviews and analysed by means of a new codification system for identifying the affinities and conflicts arising from existing water demands. Results show that sustainability concepts are more present in civil society than in public administration and private services or the rural community. However, social sustainability and environmental sustainability are a priority for most stakeholders, while the economic perspective of sustainable development has been conditioned by the first two. These results can be used by relevant authorities as a first step in customizing their interventions, as they provide a clear initial idea of what stakeholder priorities are in the framework of sustainable development.     

How to “walk the talk”: The perspectives of sector staff on implementation of the rural water supply programme in Uganda

Many countries in sub‐Saharan Africa have adopted similar approaches to tackle the challenges of rural water supply, including community‐based management, community participation and the demand‐responsive approach. These are often combined with nationwide programmes of capacity‐building and decentralization. This paper first shows how Uganda has adopted these approaches in its rural water supply programme. Based on Government documents, we construct an organizational framework that illustrates the overall programme and outlines the roles and responsibilities which actors are expected to fulfil. Second, based on interviews with sector staff and a review of Government documents, the paper examines challenges to successfully “walk the talk”; that is, it provides insight into challenges affecting programme implementation. Among numerous difficulties, two key issues are highlighted: local political interference and the weak capacity of local governments. Concerning local political interference, local planning processes need to be reformed so that local politicians commit more strongly to improving water supply. Regarding local government capacity, the Government department responsible for the programme has established eight regional units that provide support to local governments. This promising strategy, combined with more appropriate engagement and the commitment of local politicians, should help to improve the implementation of the rural water supply programme in Uganda.     

WICKED WATER PROBLEMS: SOCIOLOGY AND LOCAL WATER ORGANIZATIONS IN ADDRESSING WATER RESOURCES POLICY1

ABSTRACT: Water policy problems are wicked, not in an ethically deplorable sense, but in the sense that they present us with especially difficult challenges of becoming more effective in our interdisciplinary collaboration, of integrating two very different types of knowledge, of working across several socio‐political units of analysis simultaneously, and of better organizing water as a common property resource. Sociology, as a discipline, does not have a particularly rich history of successful interdisciplinary collaboration on water resources research and teaching, but it potentially has a most useful contribution to make by focusing on the analysis of local common property resource organizations that operate in the interface between individual resource users and State‐Federal entities. These organizations (e.g., water user associations, mutual companies, irrigation districts, acequias, conservancy districts) have been the orphans of water policy discourse but their operations are critical to undertaking more effective 21st century social analysis, research work, and action programs. Sociologists who work to better comprehend the operations of, and constraints upon, these organizations build a sociology that can better collaborate with other water‐related disciplines in addressing the challenges posed by the wickedness of our water problems.     

Private Sector Participation in Urban Water and Sanitation Provision in Ghana: Experiences from the Tamale Metropolitan Area (TMA)

African governments, like most countries in the developing world, face daunting tasks in their attempts to provide effective and equitable water and sanitation services for their ever increasing urban populations. Consequently, the past few years have witnessed increased private sector participation in urban water and sanitation provision, as many African governments strive to improve access to water and sanitation services for their citizens in line with Millennium Development Goal 7 (MDG7). Since the early 1990s, the government of Ghana and many local authorities have entered into various forms of public-private partnerships in urban water and sanitation provision. This article examines the outcome of such partnerships using the Tamale Metropolitan Area (TMA) as a case study with the aim of providing policy guidelines for the way forward. The article argues that the public-private arrangement for water supply and sanitation infrastructure management in the Tamale Metropolis has done nothing that an invigorated public sector could not have possibly achieved. It concludes that there can be no sustainable improvement in water and sanitation provision without political commitment, stakeholder ownership, and strong support for community driven initiatives.     

Individualized water source as an indicator of attitudes about water management and conservation in humid regions

Public perceptions about water quantity and water as a common pool resource are understudied in humid regions. As water demand increases, the need to more closely manage water, even in humid areas, will increase, requiring better understanding how people perceive their water supply, how they view paying for water conservation and how water user characteristics influence attitudes. A survey finds correlations between utilizing an individual water source (e.g. well or spring) and attitudes toward water management and conservation. Compared to respondents with a shared water source, those with an individual source believe they are segregated from regional water concerns. They are less willing to pay for water management or conservation measures and less supportive of any government intervention in water management. These results suggest that planners and water managers may face resistance to conservation policies or any policy based on the idea of water as a common pool resource.     

Constructing a Strategic, National Resource: European Policies and the Up-Scaling of Water Services in the Algarve, Portugal

Water management has been significantly reshaped throughout recent decades in Europe and worldwide. Vivid examples of this restructuring include Southern European coastal zones which have been transformed into the European “pleasure periphery” over the last 40 years, requiring significant changes in water service provision. Taking it as an illustrative case of the Southern European coastal freshwater crisis and the way different European Member States have dealt with it, the article provides an account of the Algarve, indicative of typical Portuguese dynamics, and compares it with developments in other European countries. Expanding demands on water services in this region led to a crisis situation throughout the nineties, which was resolved by shifting physical infrastructures and competencies to the supra-local level. The re-scaling of water management was instrumental to expanding national control over the sector at the expense of local authorities and privatization. The national level used European funds and regulations to re-configure the institutional and infrastructure set-up in order to provide for tourism and agricultural expansion. Quality tourism was constructed as a decentral, hegemonic state spatial project, with the Algarvian’s entire water resource base being put at its disposal. The solution found illustrates a modified version of the supply side and surface water oriented “hydraulic paradigm” in Portugal: geared towards tourism and urban areas and the maintenance of irrigation agriculture. Delays in infrastructures, ideological preferences, maintaining national control over strategic water services and territoriality contributed towards the construction of water services as part of this hegemonic state spatial strategy for tourism expansion.     

WATER AUCTIONS AS AN ALLOCATION MECHANISM IN VICTORIA,AUSTRALIA1

ABSTRACT: During recent years many countries have moved to rationalize the management of state owned or state controlled resources. In Victoria, Australia, water, in particular, has received a great deal of attention. Subsidies to construct, operate, and rehabilitate irrigation facilities have been reduced, and there have been numerous consolidations of small water supply authorities to achieve economies of scale. In addition, Victoria has taken the unusual step of using auctions to allocate new irrigation water entitlements. The six water auctions that took place during 1988 and early 1989 were perceived as an efficient and equitable mechanism to allocate limited water supplies to their highest value use. While the agricultural areas where the different auctions occurred were similar, there was substantial variation in the prices paid, which reflects varying demands for additional irrigation water. This paper will discuss the following topics: the auction process used and the results of the auctions, the efficiency of the auction procedures, and the factors influencing the demand for additional irrigation water in the different auctions. In addition, the implications of using auctions to allocate water supplies for future water management in Victoria will be discussed.     

Land and water systems: managing the hydrological risk

The paper suggests that the expansion of irrigated agriculture in the 20th century has de-coupled the water user from the inherent risk of exploiting both surface and groundwater resources. The apparent reliability of storage and conveyance infrastructure and the, relative cheapness and flexibility of groundwater exploitation offered by mechanised drilling and pumping have sheltered the end user from natural hydrological risk. The imperative for in-field irrigation efficiency has been effectively removed since the physical and economic management of the resource is determined by command area authorities or, in the case of some groundwater pumping, by the performance of power utilities, who have no direct interest in integrated resource conservation. As a result, the resource base has been degraded, and in some cases irreparable damage has occurred. It is argued that the rigidity of the resource management in many irrigation systems is not attuned to the inherent variability of natural systems upon which they depend. Further, the paper argues that irrigation management systems can work toward sustainability by spreading risk equitably, and transparently, amongst the resource regulators, managers and users. This has to involve a much more flexible approach to natural resource management that is conditioned not only by natural parameters, but also by the socio-economic settings. A range of examples highlights the variability and scale issues involved.     

A decision model for selecting sustainable drinking water supply and greywater reuse systems for developing communities with a case study in Cimahi, Indonesia

Capacity Factor Analysis is a decision support system for selection of appropriate technologies for municipal sanitation services in developing communities. Developing communities are those that lack the capability to provide adequate access to one or more essential services, such as water and sanitation, to their residents. This research developed two elements of Capacity Factor Analysis: a capacity factor based classification for technologies using requirements analysis, and a matching policy for choosing technology options. First, requirements analysis is used to develop a ranking for drinking water supply and greywater reuse technologies. Second, using the Capacity Factor Analysis approach, a matching policy is developed to guide decision makers in selecting the appropriate drinking water supply or greywater reuse technology option for their community. Finally, a scenario-based informal hypothesis test is developed to assist in qualitative model validation through case study. Capacity Factor Analysis is then applied in Cimahi Indonesia as a form of validation. The completed Capacity Factor Analysis model will allow developing communities to select drinking water supply and greywater reuse systems that are safe, affordable, able to be built and managed by the community using local resources, and are amenable to expansion as the community's management capacity increases.     

Willingness to pay for safe drinking water: Evidence from Parral, Mexico

A referendum-format contingent valuation (CV) survey is used to elicit household willingness to pay responses for safe and reliable drinking water in Parral, Mexico. Households currently adopt a variety of averting and private investment choices (e.g., bottled water consumption, home-based water treatment, and installation of water storage facilities) to adapt to the existing water supply system. These revealed behaviors indicate the latent demand for safer and more reliable water services, which is corroborated by the CV survey evidence. Validity findings include significant scope sensitivity in WTP for water services. Further, results indicate that households are willing to pay from 1.8% to 7.55% of reported household income above their current water bill for safe and reliable drinking water services, depending upon the assumptions about response uncertainty.     

Company Engagement in Community‐Based Water Resource Projects: Improving Water Security

Companies have been increasing their focus on issues related to water availability and, more broadly, to water security. After focusing on reducing water use and/or increasing water efficiency in their operations, and then looking more broadly to understand their exposure to water‐related business risks, companies are beginning to look to their suppliers and their customers, as well as their local communities, to identify opportunities to create shared value. This article provides summaries of how several companies are engaging in community‐based water resource projects beyond their fence lines.     

Water Quality in Drinking Water Reservoirs of a Megacity, Istanbul

Providing clean water at relevant quality and quantity is a challenge that regulatory authorities have to face in metropolitan cities that seem to develop at their limits of sustainability. Istanbul strives to face such a challenge for its population of over 10 million, through six surface water resources. Two approaches of classification for the reservoirs are presented, one based on current regulations and an alternative based on a more detailed classification. The results have shown that nutrient control is the primary issue, and one of the reservoirs has already exceeded the limits of being eutrophic, one is at mesotrophic conditions, and the remaining four are at the limit of being eutrophic, indicating the significance of making the correct decision and taking pertinent measures for management and control. It has been observed that the only mesotrophic resource, which also has the best general quality class, has no industry and a very low population density, whereas the one that is already eutrophic is also the one with the lowest quality class, has the highest population density, and has the greatest percentage of urban land use within its watershed.     

Towards a smallholder hydrology for equitable and sustainable water management

Situations of water scarcity challenge sustainability and threaten small users' access to water. In response to this problem, there has been a search for a method of hydrological analysis that can better represent the needs of small water users. While this search is rooted in the debate favouring a more participatory and inclusive allocation of the resource, it also requires a new focus on smallholder hydrology that can confront the gaps and biases found in current hydrological practices in many countries. This article looks at past hydrological practices and also at results of recent studies, highlighting the perspective of smallholder irrigators in surface water planning in Zimbabwe, and groundwater planning in India. These case studies show that wider social forces, not always best science, drive hydrological practices. However, new frameworks focusing on the water user can emerge for more equitable and sustainable water management.     

Environmental accounting for waste management: A study of local governments in Australia

Local governments in Australia, especially in large urban areas, have faced a challenge of the growing quantity of waste generated and the diminishing space for waste disposal in recent years. The central government has demonstrated the importance of developing strategies to make full environmental costs and impacts of waste disposal and material recovery accountable for waste management decision-making. However, research into this field is limited. This paper investigates environmental accounting practices in local government waste management. From a survey conducted with local government authorities in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, it is found that overall the level of direct waste flow and activity accounting is higher than the level of hidden and external environmental cost accounting, though local governments tend to identify and use more physical information associated with waste flows and activities than relevant monetary information. External environmental impacts of waste disposal are often overlooked and show the lowest level of practices. The survey results also indicate that urban local governments have taken more environmental information into account than rural local governments, but such difference is not significant between local governments of different sizes. The complexity of waste technical services and operations is confirmed to have a positive and significant effect on the level of environmental accounting for waste management across local governments surveyed.     

SUBSTATE INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION FOR MANAGING LAKES AND WATERSHEDS: A WISCONSIN CASE STUDY1

ABSTRACT: Since the 1970s, there has been extensive experimentation with new approaches to water and land resources management at the state and local levels. There is a critical need to document, assess, and synthesize lessons learned from the nation's recent experience with subnational institutional changes in environmental management. This paper examines institutional changes aimed at more integrated water and related resources management at the substate level of government. We describe innovative institutional changes in a case study of Dane County, Wisconsin, and assess the implementation and preliminary consequences of these changes. Dissatisfaction with watershed and lake management results and perceptions of institutional inadequacy led to significant changes in the structure and rules for county resources management. A new entity was created to focus watershed management responsibilities. The scope of authority and powers were expanded. However, these changes all occurred within the framework of a general purpose unit of government. The new institutional arrangements have achieved a number of milestones, although it is premature to fully assess resource outcomes. The substantive changes, implementation tactics, and overall experience in Dane County's reforms - especially with regard to addressing intergovernmental tensions and decentralized management, limited authorities and funding, and public and constituency support - have useful implications for other substate efforts at more comprehensive and integrated water resources management.     

INTEGRATED WATERSHED MANAGEMENT ON THE TRUCKEE RWER IN NEVADA1

ABSTRACT: The Truckee River is a vitally important water source for eastern California and western Nevada. It runs 100 miles from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake in the Nevada desert and serves urban populations in greater Reno-Sparks and agricultural users in three Nevada counties. In the 1980s and 1990s, a number of state and local groups initiated projects which, taken collectively, have accomplished much to improve watershed management on the Truckee River. However, the task of writing a management plan for the entire watershed has not yet been undertaken. Key players in state, federal and local government agencies have instead chosen to focus specific improvement efforts on more manageable, achievable goals. The projects currently underway include a new agreement on reservoir operation, restoration of high priority sub-watersheds, public education and involvement, water conservation education, and water resource planning for the major urban population centers. The approach which has been adopted on the Truckee River continues to evolve as more and more people take an interest in the river's future. The many positive projects underway on the watershed are evaluated in terms of how well they meet the definition of the ambitious water resources strategy, “integrated watershed management.”